Charge 5 Battery lasting 1 day only

[vishalw]

I got a Charge 5 a two days back hoping to get more battery than my Galaxy watch active. To my surprise, the battery drained quite fast on 1 day. I charged it again to 100% and the battery drained fully within 24 hours. I am using default settings and did not track any exercise/GPS etc.I had used so many fitbit's over few years and none had such a pathetic battery life. Any suggestions?

[drink-sugar]

What are yours Charge 5 settings?

[stuli]

@drink-sugarmost of the settings are just regular out of the box. I only did vibrations to strong.

[vishalw]

Update:

After the 19% drop in an hour for the new Charge 5, the battery is at 55% after 1.5 days of usage. The new device could last for the claimed days. I am fine with ~5 days battery life. I will update after monitoring it for some more time.

I am disappointed with the fitbit support. I called and talked to the support person, still no response from the technical or next team for more than 48 hours (committed ETA was within 24 hours).

[bbit]

@vishalw My Charge 5 battery life varies; I haven't figured out exactly what's going on. Maybe some of this will help you? Battery life was less than 1 day (after initial charging) when I got it (all default settings). Now sometimes it goes 5 days (I've had this since mid-October).So I'm not sure that Defaults is the most battery-saving setting (of course I can't remember what all the default settings were).

When I use built-in GPS for exercise tracking (for use with Strava app), battery is quickly drained. I haven't gotten GPS to work with iphone, so I have to use the built-in GPS (Settings section). I also turn on GPS (Exercise>bike>GPS) before starting and turn off GPS in the Exercise section right after finishing. And I go back to Settings>GPS to return GPS to "iPhone" after completing exercise.

Good luck with your battery issue.

[stuli]

@bbit @vishalw It's been 11 days since I brought charge 5 and the battery lasts ~ 1.5 days. When my charge 5 got dead, my mom's charge 5 had around 50% of charge. Both charge 5s were brought on the same day 11 days back.

[DavideFitbit]

Hi everyone, thank you for your feedback and for all the information that you've provided about the inconvenience that you've been experiencing with the new Charge 5. 

It seems that many of you have already contacted the Customer Support team for further assistance with this. Before doing so, please make sure that you've exhausted all the standard troubleshooting steps found in this article to improve battery life. The Charge 5 should have a battery life of 7 days, and although battery life is affected by use or other settings and actual results may vary, it shouldn't last for only 1 or 2 days. 

Some of the feature that can drain the battery more rapidly are: 

• Built-in GPS (Charge 5 can have a battery life of up to 4 day when using this feature regularly, or up to 5 hours if you use it continuously).
• Always-on display (Charge 5 can have a battery life of up to 3 days when using this feature). 
• Using an Sp82 clock face (Fitbit points out in this article that you may have to charge your Fitbit device more often when collecting SpO2 data).

If you already followed the recommendations to improve battery life, considering how some features affect it, and you still consider the battery is draining too fast, I recommend that you reach out to our Customer Support team for further assistance. The best way to get help for this problem is to chat with us online or give us a call. Click here to get connected. 

Have a good day. 

[vishalw]

Update:

The replacement Charge5 battery is looking far better. Lasting for 4+ days. The only problem that I had so far is, during both battery charge cycles, the HR stopped working. It started working after restart. I will monitor it when I recharge my Charge 5 next.

[nisha1179]

taking mine back right now. went to sleep 71% woke up 18%. 

[DDay]

That experience sounds just like mine.  I charged to full and less than 24 hours later it's in the single digits.  This is ridiculous.  I know it's a totally different animal, but my Zip used to last weeks on a single battery.  Something must be done about the Charge 5's miserable battery life.

[Odyssey13]

Hi @DDay  comparing the Zip to the Charge 5 isn't really fair. The Zip could only recognize your steps and the Charge 5 can do so much more. Button batteries can last a long time when it's just counting steps and syncing. The Charge 5 is rechargeable and has so many more features.

[nisha1179]

maybe you got a bad one. take it back and see how that works. im on my 3rd one and i turned off always on. so far im on day 3 at 78% with using GPS 

[SunsetRunner]

@nisha1179 your battery looks impressive. I hope mine will be the same when I will get it as Christmas present! 🎅

[DavideFitbit]

@vishalw Thank you for sharing that battery life has improved.

Regarding the heart rate problem you mentioned, I recommend that you try restarting the device again using the three pulse restart method mentioned here below, instead of the restart option found on the Charge 5 itself: 

1. Connect your device to the charging cable. For instructions, see How do I charge my Fitbit device?
2. Press the button located on the flat end of the charger 3 times, pausing for 1 second between presses. Then wait 10 seconds or until the Fitbit logo appears.

In addition, please follow the instructions in this article to improve the accuracy of heart rate information and check the information mentioned here about other factors that could affect your heart rate reading, this has been useful to other users who have experienced something similar. 

@DDay Please let me know if you already tried all the steps mentioned here earlier, as this has been useful for other users as well. 

I'll be around. 

[SunsetRunner]

I’ve tried all the suggested battery savers as well. Mine lasts less than 48 hours. Where does the 7 day selling point come from: charging it to 100% then putting it back in the box. Very frustrating!

[vishalw]

Davide,

Is the solution applicable for Charge 5? I worked with Fitbit support and it seems to be a software bug. As per support, it is a clock face caching issue. While working with support, the HR was not showing on the clock. I change the clock face to a different one and it started showing the HR. The only problem is that the Fitbit app showed HR missing during this time window. If it continues then I may return the unit. Battery life issue resolved by replacing the unit.

[DavideFitbit]

@SunsetRunner @vishalw Thank you for your replies and for sharing that you already tried all the troubleshooting steps mentioned earlier. 

It seems that you already tried all the basic troubleshooting steps available in the forums that could helpful to resolve problems with the battery or the heart rate. In this case, if you continue to experience the same problem, I recommend that you continue the communication with the Support team so they can let you know how to proceed or what options are available for you. Thank you for taking the time to share all your feedback as well. 

The best way to get help for this problem is to chat with us online or give us a call. Click here to get connected. 

@vishalw It's good to know that you were able to resolve the problem with the heart rate not showing after changing the clock face. Unfortunately it wouldn't be possible to recover heart rate information for the days where it wasn't recording your data properly. 

Have a good day.